Hayden Panettiere’s Doctor Issued Grim Warning About Her Drinking, She Revealed in Memoir: ‘Dead Within Five Years’
Before her death, Hayden Panettiere opened up about her long struggle with substance abuse in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.
Hayden Panettiere dies at age 36
Panettiere died August 16 in Greenville, South Carolina, at age 36. An official cause of death has not been released. However, a recording of the 911 dispatch call obtained by Page Six reveals that first responders were responding to a suspected overdose.
The Heroes and Nashville star discussed her drug and alcohol use in interviews over the years, as well as in her 2026 memoir.
In 2022, she recalled that when she was 15, a member of her team had given her “happy pills” ahead of red carpet appearances.
“They were to make me peppy during interviews,” she told People. “I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction.”
“[A]s I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without,” she shared.
Panettiere’s issues with alcohol worsened after she gave birth to her daughter, Kaya, in 2014. In her book, she said she turned to booze to self-medicate as she battled severe postpartum depression. Eventually, she agreed to give up custody of her child to her ex and Kaya’s father, boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Kaya now lives in Ukraine with Klitschoko.
“It was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” she told People. “But I wanted to be a good mom to her — and sometimes that means letting them go.”
Meanwhile, Panettiere said she continued to drink to numb difficult feelings. But her health had become increasingly fragile.
“A doctor told me that if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d be dead within five years,” she wrote in This Is Me.
‘Nashville’ actor recent said she had ‘shaken off’ the ‘darkness’
In 2020, Panettiere spent eight months in rehab. She said she emerged from the experience with a fresh appreciation for life.
“The sun seemed brighter, the sky looked bluer, and all around me, I could hear the hum of creatures doing the hard work of being alive,” she wrote.
Panettiere was optimistic about her future following rehab, even as she faced more personal struggles, including the death of her younger brother Jansen Panettiere in 2023. In 2023 she returned to acting after a hiatus of several years, reprising her role as Kirby in Scream VI. Her last role was in the 2026 horror movie Sleepwalker.
“I finally feel like I have shaken off all of this darkness and this negativity,” she told podcaster Jay Shetty in an interview earlier this year. “I’ve closed one door and another door is opened … I can feel all the exciting possibilities. I feel like I have a lot more life to live.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
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